Get Out and Girls actress Allison Williams, 34, tells us all about working on M3GAN and the sequel, why she’s actually terrified of scary movies and all about her Love Island binge sessions.
What led you to M3GAN?
Very fundamentally, it was an email from Jason Blum, who I had worked with before on Get Out. We had tried to do other stuff over the years together, after Get Out, that hadn’t worked, but then he sent me an email and just said, “I’m sending you something to read, I think this is our next thing together”. And something very flattering, like “We need you.”
I already wanted to do it without even reading the script. But then once I read the script, and then after speaking to Gerard [Johnstone, director] about his vision for it, I just was like, alright, we’ve got to do this. If only so I can know what she’s going to look like.
When you’re reading, you have such a clear sense of who she is in your mind’s eye, but bringing her to life was a total adventure. By the time we reached the person who freaked you out so much in the movie, we were all just so proud of her and our little creation. Not so little… Our mighty, mighty creation.
People dressed up as the doll for Halloween before the film had even come out.
It was amazing. When we were designing her, I remember one of the things Gerard was saying about her costume was like, “I want it to be so specific that it can be iconic, like a Halloween costume that people could easily recognize who they’re dressed up as.” When I saw the finished product, I thought, wow, this is so specific, what a look. She has the bow and then the dress that looks like a coat, it’s all so specific. The long sleeve shirt underneath and tights…
To see people in that costume last Halloween, before the movie had even come out. One of them, Jason Blum, our boss – who did it again at the premiere – was the most gratifying thing ever because it meant that people watched the trailer, and they had a sense already for who M3GAN is, they understood her essence, they got her vibe. They ran with it, they did the dance, the whole thing.
Equally gratifying was the experience of knowing people were seeing the movie and falling for her even more, understanding and absorbing her fabulousness, which is all you can ask for after working for years to try to make sure that she comes across as a full being to audiences.
Who do you think would win in a fight between M3GAN and Chucky?
It’s not fair, unfortunately, to poor Chucky. Bless him. Chucky is too human, Chucky is a human in a doll, that is so passe, M3GAN is so beyond that. You know what she would do? She would Wikipedia Chucky, and she would look up how he’s been defeated in past Chucky movies. It’s just not a fair fight. She’s the internet, and she has this superhuman strength.
So, unfortunately for our poor guy – and no shade to the Chucky stans out there, I love me some Child’s Play – it’s just on a different plan. It’s apples to oranges.
I’m team M3GAN all the way.
Thank you, we’re glad to have you.
A sequel has been confirmed, would you be keen to go into battle again?
Yeah, I’m in it. I’m producing it! We’ve already begun to work on it. Oh, yeah, I am in for the M3GAN ride, it was such a good experience the first time around. It’s such an honor to have another [go] at bat to be able to bring more M3GAN into people’s lives and try to have a little bit more fun with it this time.
You recently became a mom, but I’m assuming these kinds of toys are now fully off limits?
We’re not there yet and we’re not going to be there for a while. But it definitely does make you – and I don’t know if you had this experience – but you come home and you look at a smart device and you’re like, “I don’t know. Do I want you in my house? I’m not sure.”
Ways away from having to think about those things, luckily, but it certainly does make you tune into that immediate intuitive interaction that kids can have with technology. It’s built to be so instinctive and intuitive for kids to use. It makes you think twice, but I think that is one of the core purposes of the movie, is examining our relationship and reliance on technology. Particularly in the way it interfaces with kids. It’s worth some thoughts, we would say.
Kids these days are already so good at using technology, it’s worrying!
They’re just swiping around! The other thing I’ve heard from my friends is that their kids go up to TVs and try to swipe the TV, because they’re just like, what is this dumb screen that I can’t operate with finger movement?
They get it so quickly, it takes them no time at all. They are born into it, it’s part of them. It’s about finding that balance between knowing that they can use it and also avoiding a scenario where they are attached to it. It’s a finer line than it seems.
I have to know, what is your favorite scary movie?
Every time someone asks me that, I just hear the line in Scream. “What’s your favorite scary movie?” is such a scary question. The truth is I have a really low tolerance for horror, meaning when I watch a scary movie, it affects my sleep for a while. For real. So some of my favorites are my favorites but they’re stuck in time, because I’ve been too scared to watch them again.
I love the Sixth Sense. I love the Ring. The Ring scared me so much that I’ve never seen the original, because the American version was so scary. I know the original is way scarier, I definitely can’t handle that. I love Rosemary’s Baby, that was one that Jordan Peele asked me to watch before Get Out and I absolutely loved it. So, there’s a lot that I really love. The Shining, I think, is qualified as a horror movie. But they’re so scary that I love them and leave them. I’m like, “I’ll see you in another couple decades when I build up my tolerance again to watch you.”
I saw the trailer to Smile and I couldn’t sleep for two days. This is not a strong horror system, which is funny because I work in this genre now quite a bit, and I love the people who make these movies, and I love the people who watch these movies. I’m going to work towards building a better tolerance for it. You’d think because I make them, they wouldn’t be that scary, because I know the secrets of it, but absolutely not.
I find it the genre that most makes me forget what I do for a living. It pulls me in and then I lose the sense of safety in the world, I’m coming back into my bedroom after watching and I’m under the bed looking for who knows what? It doesn’t come from a logical place, it bypasses my brain and just goes right to my fear center, it’s a sign of a good movie.
What do you watch in your spare time? What do you wind down to? Are you Housewives girl or Below Deck?
I usually love competition reality, but someone just told me that there’s been a secret Winter Love Island season, so I’m just starting the season that started in January. It’s usually in the summer, the UK version, so now I’m watching Love Island. I have 50-something episodes to go and then I’ll be caught up.
I text my brother like, who was going to tell me? Someone has to notify me that these things are happening. He was like, I’m ashamed to admit that I am fully current, I’ve seen every episode. I can’t wait, I heard Casa Amor is particularly brutal. I don’t want to know anything else.
I’m very excited. I love me some reality dating shows – Perfect Match, Married At First Sight, the whole thing. I love them all.
The ‘unseen edition’ of M3GAN comes home, available to download & keep now, and on Blu-Ray™ and DVD on April 17.
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